Friday, September 4, 2015

Babel Confounded

The myth of
the tower of Babel, as told in the Book of Genesis, means to explain the origin
of the different languages. A united people,
of the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and
migrating from the east, came to the land of Shinar. Here they agreed to build
a city and tower, intending to reach the sky, to keep the people united, and to
make a name for themselves. Seeing this, God thought it an act of defiance, and
confounded their speech so that they could no longer understand each other; and
scattered them around the world.

From the beginning of mankind, language and writing have
been important communication tools.The
myth of Babel – the confusion of languages – seems to stress the need for a
common language – which is what English has become in the last decades – with
its rich literature, great political and scientific writings, and now the
language of computing.I wanted to
express this concept in my quilt. It is a Babel in reverse:from many languages, we come to a common
language.

This piece is
composed of two main layers:

- The background
layer is a composite of computer-printed cotton sheets, stitched together by
machine, where both the colour (gradations), and the texts, come from tools in
Photoshop. The texts in this first layer are in many languages; some are real
languages – say like French and Spanish – while others are produced using fonts
(downloaded free from the internet), which purport to be a different alphabet,
but they are only ‘pretend’ (like Chinese or Hebrew).

- The second, overlaying, layer, is made of ‘flaps’ of silk organza, where further texts are printed, either
using the computer printer, or Thermofax screens. The organza itself is
hand-painted with diluted acrylics. The texts in this layer are all in English – now the universal language – and
cover a wide range of subjects: literature, computer-talk, politics, science,
etc.

- There is some
hand-stitching holding the layers together.

I have used
materials and techniques which are unusual for me. It fits within my subject of Magic and Science, as it ranges from the mythological to current reality.

I love this work, Alicia! I have always been fascinated by the myth of the tower of Babel. It is a meaningful and inspirational work. I like the techniques and layers you use in this piece. Thank you for sharing it with us!